Diapers- Cloth vs. sposies...how much do you spend per week? - Page 2 « Back to Group Discussions

[jacquelinej]

This is such a darn awesome thread.  I just wanted to say I am following this thread closely.  I did CD with DD...but it was over 7 years ago and I can not remember how and what I did!  Plus I am in a totally different living situation, which will change twice before the baby gets here, so thinking about other options is great!  And I still have to consider the 6 weeks of travel overseas in the summer...hrmmmmm.  I have no idea what our situation will be at that time 

[Quinalla]

I was going to try CDing with DD, but I was so overwhelmed at the start I never tried it and by the time we were in a good groove, she was in daycare and it just didn't seem worth it anymore. I don't plan to try with the twins unless they are having diaper rash issues that could be helped by that. As far as diaper costs, once we got into size 1 (it took at bit as DD was 5lb4oz at birth) we could buy them at Sam's and they were pretty cheap then. I know when I was comparing prices, the systems I wanted to use were approximately comparable to using disposables, but I was looking at pockets with inserts which are much more costly than prefolds and covers generally.

[kimble]

Originally Posted by jacquelinej 

 I did CD with DD...but it was over 7 years ago and I can not remember how and what I did!  Plus I am in a totally different living situation, which will change twice before the baby gets here, so thinking about other options is great! 

When you come back to Boston, the Diaper Lab in Somerville may be a great resource. They have a try before you buy program - you put down a deposit, get a bunch (12?) diapers of your choice, use them for 2 weeks, and return any you don't want. I'm planning to try to convert DH to at least attempt CD once one size pockets will fit, and this program will be my secret weapon.

[Lynann]

Its actually amazing just how many different options are out there for cloth, and how different the prices are too. I currently have 3 kinds of pockets. The Fuzzibunz were about $21 a piece, then I have a couple of Charlie Banana that were $19 each, but my favorites are Kawaii Baby even though they are only $7.50 each, as I have chunky babies and the Kawaii Baby ones are larger made. You can get pockets from as little as $4.99 each.

I love, love, love using prefolds though and they cost about $1 each and the covers range in price from $4 through to about $15 depending on which ones you get. I think I love the prefolds so much because my babies have such huge thighs and they offer the best flexibility in fit. I actually have about 75 prefolds right now, but we don't use them all, so I have some put aside for the new baby.

Last time I also made 24 newborn size fitted diapers from old t-shirts, to use until the baby was big enough for prefolds. Last time my newborn was 9lb8oz so he only lasted in the fitteds for a couple of weeks. I also have woolen soakers that I knitted myself for a cost of $2 each, compared to the $30-40 it costs to buy them on etsy. I love the wool soakers for when they are really little, although they do take a little bit of work as I hand wash them and re-lanolize them every 3-4 weeks.

I haven't used throw away diapers since DS1 was 5-6 weeks old (which is when he finally was big enough to fit the prefolds we had for him) but we are considering using them at Christmas since we will be away for 3 nights 4 days to visit DH's family, and we're staying at a hotel, and I don't want to deal with trying to do laundry at MIL's house. (The first time we took DS1 she tired to help by washing some of his diapers after we told her in extremely clear terms NOT to help that way, and she put bleach in them and didn't do any extra rinses. The smell of bleach was so strong even once they were dry I wanted to cry. I had to wait until we got home and wash them several times before I could get rid of the bleach smell, so I never want to do diaper laundry at her home ever again.) Since they boys are about the same size now we can fortunately use the same size diapers on both of them. I know that at 27lbs & 29lbs they will be in size 4, but I have no idea how many to buy, as I don't want too many as we will switch back to cloth for the journey home.

[BaileyB]

I would also second the ECing. We CD for the first 11 months or so but also started ECing at around 9 months or so. Even if you only do it when you are at home it saves on having to buy or wash diapers. When you first look at ECing it seems like no way does that ever work but it really does!

[nstewart]

Originally Posted by BaileyB 

I would also second the ECing. We CD for the first 11 months or so but also started ECing at around 9 months or so. Even if you only do it when you are at home it saves on having to buy or wash diapers. When you first look at ECing it seems like no way does that ever work but it really does!

Ya, when I first heard about EC I thought you had to be crazy to do it.  Who has time to chase around a naked baby all day worrying if they'll pee on your floor, right?  I ended up trying it because I was bored one week (and DS was so obvious about when he had to poop) and was pretty hooked instantly after the first catch.  With this babe I may even start at newborn.  Overall, I think EC is actually easier in a lot of ways than diapering (from a laundry perspective it absolutely is) and you are generally done with diapers sooner too.  DS was a grad at just shy of 19 months, but we were pretty well done with diapers by the time he was a year.  I still had to take HIM to the potty, but he rarely peed in his trainers.  I considered him a grad the day he figured out he could tell ME he had to pee and I would take him.

I highly recommend at least checking out the EC forum, and The Diaper Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh is a great book.  You can do EC part time, it doesn't have to be an all or nothing undertaking (we didn't do night time EC, for example).

[BeagleMommy]

All good information. After exclusively cloth diapering both my kiddos, the only thing I could add to the inexpensive/easier CD discussion is I loved fitted diapers with covers made from felted wool sweaters. We never had any leaks that way and it's certainly cheap. The wool only has to be washed once every few weeks or so by hand. The only time consuming part is it takes days for them to dry.

We used pockets with my daughter from birth until the weather got hot. She started getting rashy so we switched to wool. Much cooler on her little bottom.

My son, on the other hand, had no problems with pocket diapers all the way through PL.

I don't know how devoted to cloth I'd be if I didn't have a washer, especially after the huge ice storm we had in 2009. I was hand washing prefolds in cold water for 17 days while we had no electricity! I do not remember that fondly.

[Loogiejane]

You guys...so much info! And here I was thinking it was just cloth vs disposable...not prefold, insert, wool, pocket, this that and the other! So much to learn. Listening to all of your experiences I think, unless I am willing to spend the $35-$50 a week on a diaper service, given my apartment situation, I might have to opt for the sposies. Because I have to ask myself, "will I REALLY do all that cleaning and drying myself?" What I just want to make sure of is if I'll be using the nonbleached dipes that those won't amount to the same $$ per week that a diaper service would because otherwise it would be silly to not do the diaper service.

This will be part of my incentive to move to a place with a washer dryer! But that prob won't happen til babe is at least 12 months since we want to stay in our neighborhood for as long as possible until we know where we're moving for my grad school that I will start, likely, Fall 2014 when babe is 13-15 months. Oh, the joys of waiting til my 30s to fiiiiiiinally go back to school AND have children. I'm psyched for both, just not psyched to have both at the same time

[devon]

New to the DDC here...

This is our 4th kiddo and we've used cloth dipes with all of them - we started when our oldest was around 6 months.  We did mostly all pockets with him, but with each kiddo, we've moved to more and more only using prefolds/prefitteds and covers.  I just went through my cloth yesterday and realized that I didn't really buy any new diapers (maybe one or two pockets) with my #3 kid, and with this new baby, I am all set.  I have prefolds and covers that are 8 years old and are just now wearing out - so I think the $ savings REALLY comes when you are able to reuse the diapers with multiple kids.

I know a few people who use prefolds at a laundromat and don't have any problems.  They are workhorse diapers - you don't have to worry as much about things causing buildup, etc.  In fact, I don't use any special detergent or anything for my diapers or my baby clothing - it all gets washed with the same detergent (which varies from Tide to Arm & Hammer)

I might pick up some prefolds and covers - you could get a dozen prefolds and 2 covers for pretty cheap, and that would be fine for a day.  Then, perhaps do a mix of disposables as well as cloth diapers and see if going to the laundromat every 3 days is that much of a pain or not.  Honestly, our babies did not add that much to our normal laundry (excluding the diapers).  

I would not go the G-Dipe route if you are planning on flushing - those are really hard on the plumbing and clogged when we tried them out.  We were concerned with the giant bags of trash we were accumulating when we used dispoables with our 1st son which is why we made the original switch to cloth (although we have consistently used disposables at night for our heavy wetters to minimize waking up and increase sleep ;) That only amounted to about $7/month though for what we used.

[Loogiejane]

Here's a question for ya'll. ....whats the situation when you have a messy liquidy doodie diaper? You throw that right into the machine?

Can you tell how big of a newbie I am?
 

[BeagleMommy]

Yes, devon, the savings really do increase as dipes are used for more kiddos. I have to buy $0 of diapering stuff this time around. I might be tempted by some newborn sized diapers (most my stash is one sized) but my sister has probably 50 bumGenius newborn all in ones that I can borrow!

[Lynann]

I also don't need any more diapers. This is #3 for me, so I have everything I need, including the newborn size fitteds and wool soakers.

Runny poop I will rinse out into the toilet (& give it a few dunks) to get as much poop off as possible. I then will store poopy diapers in a ziplock until I have a few of them, then run them through a cold rinse cycle in the washer before starting a diaper wash. My boys both generally only poop every other day and on the same day as each other, so that makes it easier for me. Newborn poop is a different story as it can be really sticky for the first few weeks. I plan on getting some flushable liners to catch the poop (its as thin a TP, so no issues with clogging the plumbing) and use them inside the cloth so that sticky poop doesn't get stuck to the actual diaper. They come in rolls of usually 100 or 150, so not that expensive an addition.

I do think its interesting that the mamas who have replied to this thread all do cloth/EC. Is there anyone doing full time throw away diapers already and how much did you spend a month?

[BaileyB]

Wen the baby is only breastfeeding it can all go right into the washer with the dipe. Once they start getting more solid poop then it has to be plopped into the toilet. I wasn't religious about getting everything in the toilet and our washing machine never stunk. As they eat more food it gets more solid and the easier it is to plop it out. heehee.

[Loogiejane]

Oh trust me, I know aaaaaall about the solid poops. My big sis has 3 kids and got to hear aaaaall the details including the time she found a square letter bead in my nephews diaper! Ha. I remember all I wanted to know was "well what letter what it???" It was an O

[BaileyB]

Originally Posted by Loogiejane 

Oh trust me, I know aaaaaall about the solid poops. My big sis has 3 kids and got to hear aaaaall the details including the time she found a square letter bead in my nephews diaper! Ha. I remember all I wanted to know was "well what letter what it???" It was an O

LOL!

I will have to ask my neighbor about the cost of diapers vs. cloth. I know she had it all mapped out for cost, etc. even down to how much a day it costs her to wash them. I see her in a couple of weeks.

[Kate&Joey]

Originally Posted by Lynann 

I do think its interesting that the mamas who have replied to this thread all do cloth/EC. Is there anyone doing full time throw away diapers already and how much did you spend a month?

I did all disposables with DS.  I was so overwhelmed with *mommy life* back then that I just defaulted to what everyone else did when it came to diapering.    Honestly, it was so long ago, I have no idea how much I spent on sposies...probably way too much!

I want to cloth diaper this time...but I also had no idea of all the options!  And since this is our first/last baby, I can't count on re-using them.  I was looking at the pockets, but now you guys make the prefolds sound easier than they look.

Any advice on what to build your stash with if you don't want to invest a ton of money on cloth diapers?

If this babe is anything like DS, I will use disposables for the newborn days. 

[FarmerMomma]

I like to dunk or spray into toilet first. With a small bathroom shower sprayer may reach to toilet, see there is an upside. Or you can get a device that hooks up to toilet fresh water supply and sprays for about $50 I think.

[FarmerMomma]

Originally Posted by Loogiejane 

Here's a question for ya'll. ....whats the situation when you have a messy liquidy doodie diaper? You throw that right into the machine?

Can you tell how big of a newbie I am?

 

I was replying to this. Sorry I missed some posts. Oops.

[nstewart]

Well, I didn't have to change dipes by the time DS was eating solid food.  So for BF poop, I just dumped what would easily come off in the toilet then threw them in the wet sack with the wet dipes and then threw them all in the washing machine.  

[Lynann]

Originally Posted by Kate&Joey 



Any advice on what to build your stash with if you don't want to invest a ton of money on cloth diapers?

The cheapest way to build a diaper stash is to use prefolds or flats and covers. Money was seriously tight when we had DS1 so this is what we did with him. I have always used "one size" diapers so that I don't have to keep replacing them as the baby grows, so that is also a money saver. Once you get used to them they are much easier to use that you'd think. I also like to use snappi fasteners on the prefolds until they are walking.

However pocket diapers can be found inexpensively. Alva Diapers are a brand of pockets I've seen on Superstash that are only $4.99 each, so they wouldn't cost a whole lot to build a decent stash. Sunbaby diapers are also reasonably cheap when you buy them as multi-packs direct from the sunbaby website.